a. Field of Invention
This invention relates to new antibiotic substances and to a process for producing them. More specifically, this invention relates to an antibiotic complex designated herein as "complex 484" and to individual antibiotic components thereof.
B. Description of the Prior Art
The antibiotic complex of this invention and certain of the components thereof generally resemble those of the streptothricin family of antibiotics but obvious differences do exist as indicated by chromatography and by the products obtained on hydrolysis. More particularly, the isolation of the base streptolidine and the amino acid L-.beta.-lysine following acid hydrolysis of the antibiotic substances of this invention strongly suggests that the present antibiotic substances are related to the streptothricin family. See for example streptothricin, S. A. Waksman and H. B. Woodruff, Proc. Soc. Exptl. Biol. Med., 49, 207 (1942), streptolin, R. W. Rivett and W. H. Peterson, J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 69, 3006 (1947); racemomycins A, B, C and D, H. Taniyama, et al., Chem. Pharm. Bull., 19, 1627 (1971) and fucothricin, Hindustan Antibiot. Bull., 14, 4(1971). However, the antibiotic substances of this invention can be readily distinguished from the known antibiotics of this class by their different chromatographic behavior and acid hydrolysates, as well as spectral and other physical data. Furthermore, the complex 484-producing microorganism of this invention appears to be morphologically unique when compared to the known microorganisms capable of producing streptothricin and streptothricin-like antibiotics.